Six game road trip starts at Montana

South
Dakota State closed out the home portion of its non-conference schedule and
played its final game of the calendar year on Sunday, and now hits the road the
next six games, starting on Saturday against the Montana Grizzlies in Missoula,
Mont., at 7 p.m. MT, the first of three straight games against teams that made the NCAA Tournament last year.

As a
blizzard raged outside Frost Arena on Sunday, Nate Wolters returned to the
South Dakota State lineup after missing two games due to injury to score 18
points, with seven rebounds and six assists in a 69-63 win over CSU
Bakersfield, the Jackrabbits 23rd consecutive win at home.

The
Jackrabbits, who improved to 8-3 on the season, shot 52 percent in the first
half on 14-of-27 shooting, but allowed the Roadrunners, who falls to 3-6 with
the loss, to shoot 58 percent on 18-of 31 shooting.

The
back-and-forth game saw a total of eight ties and 15 lead changes, with three
ties and eight of those lead changes in the first half before the Roadrunners
took a 39-38 lead into the locker room at halftime, after a Tony Fiegen layup
beat the first half buzzer.

The close
play continued into the second half until a pair of Jordan Dykstra free throws
with 9 minutes, 7 seconds remaining tied the game and a Dykstra layup with 8:31
left gave the Jacks a lead they would not relinquish.

CSUB would
tie the game one more time at 63-all with 2:39 left to play, but a pair of
Brayden Carlson free throws with 1:24 on the clock gave the Jacks the lead for
good, and SDSU did not allow the visitors to score again.

Along with
Wolters and his 18 points, the Jacks got 16 points and eight rebounds from
Fiegen, 12 points from Carlson and 11 from Dykstra.

NEXT UP FOR THE JACKRABBITS - SDSU heads to Nashville, Tenn.,
to take on Belmont on Wednesday, Dec. 19, at 7 p.m.

TRACKING THE
JACKRABBITS

RABBITS ON THE RADIO - Originated from the AM 570 WNAX
studios in Yankton, S.D., every SDSU men's basketball games can be heard live
on a total of five stations throughout South Dakota on the Jackrabbit Sports
Network.

Pierre,
S.D., native Tyler Merriam returns for his second season as the voice of
Jackrabbit men's basketball, and also serves as the voice of Jackrabbit
football.

THE JACKRABBIT EXTRA - Subscribers to the Jackrabbit
Extra on GoJacks.com watch every SDSU home game and select road games streaming
live on the internet. In addition, subscribers can listen to every game, home
and on the road, streaming live on the internet.

To subscribe to the Jackrabbit Extra, log
onto GoJacks.com and click on "SIGN UP NOW"

THE JACKRABBIT INSIDER ON FOX - Fans of South Dakota State
Athletics can get a weekly behind-the-scenes look at all 21 Jackrabbit varsity
sports teams by tuning into "The Jackrabbit Insider."

Hosted by
Tyler Merriam, the show airs on Sundays on KTTW FOX 17 at 10:30 p.m., and can
also be seen on Fox Sports North at 6 p.m. on Tuesdays.

NOTEWORTHY

AT THE BUZZER - The Jackrabbits lost the 2012-13
season opener at Alabama on a 3-point buzzer beater and lost at Hofstra on Nov.
16 on a 3-pointer with three seconds left.

The Jacks turned the tables on Nov. 17 vs.
Marshall, as Chad White hit a 3-pointer with two seconds left to lift SDSU to a
win. White did it again on Wednesday, hitting an off-balance 3-pointer as the
horn sounded to give the Jacks a 71-70 win over North Dakota.

WOLTERS ON MULTIPLE AWARDS WATCH
LISTS - The only
player in Division I men's basketball to average at least 20 points, five
rebounds and five assists per game in 2011-12 put senior Nate Wolters on the
national map, which led him earning place on multiple preseason awards lists.

ELITE COMPANY - Wolters finished the 2011-12
campaign averaging 21.2 points, 5.9 assists and 5.1 rebounds per game to join
an exclusive group. He became just the fifth player in NCAA history to average
20 points, five rebounds and five assists in a season. Wolters finished just
one assist shy of reaching an even more select group with a 20-points,
six-assist and five-rebound average, a feat achieved by only two players in
NCAA history.

WOLTERS DOUBLES-DOWN - After posting a total of five
double-doubles in his first three years as a Jackrabbit, Wolters enters the
week with eight in his career after posting double-doubles three double-doubles
already this season.

PERFECT AT HOME - The Jackrabbits entered the
season with 17 straight home wins, and pushed that total to 23 with the win
over CSU Bakersfield on Sunday. The Jacks home winning streak ranks third in
the nation behind Syracuse with 28 and Kansas with 26.

SDSU won a team-record 27 straight home
games from 2002-04, starting with a 98-78 win over Colorado Mines on Nov. 29,
2002, and ending with a 107-104 overtime loss to Omaha on Jan. 10, 2004.

DENVER JOINS THE SUMMIT - The University of Denver accepted
an invitation to become The Summit League's newest member institution, the
university and league announced on Nov. 27. Denver joins The Summit League
during the 2013-14 academic year, with its membership taking effect on July 1,
2013.

ON THE RECORD

WOLTERS CLIMBS THE 1,000-POINT CLUB
LADDER - Nate Wolters
became the 42nd member of the SDSU 1,000-Point Club in a win over Sam Houston
State on Nov. 22, 2011, and enters the week with 1,812 career points, good for
fourth all-time at SDSU, just four points shy of passing assistant coach Austin
Hansen for third on the all-time list and 11 points shy of passing Lee Colburn
for second on the all-time list.

WOLTERS CHASES ALL-TIME SCORING
RECORD - Wolters
scored 907 points in his first two years as a Jackrabbit, including the SDSU
sophomore record with 604 points and the junior record with 721 points. He
entered his senior season 304 points shy of breaking the SDSU record of 1,931
and now needs 120 to break the mark.

MORE THAN JUST A SCORER - In addition to his scoring
prowess, Wolters continues his climb up the all-time assists charts at SDSU.
His 188 assists as a sophomore represents the third best single-season total in
SDSU history, and his 202 as a junior marks the second-highest single-season
total at SDSU. Adding to that, his 525 career assists ranks second all-time at
SDSU, 81 shy of breaking the all-time mark of 605 assists.

DYKSTRA CLOSING IN ON 1,OOO-POINT
MILESTONE - Junior
Jordan Dykstra scored 351 points as a freshman and 362 points as a sophomore,
which gave him 713 for his to start the season. His 140 points this season
gives him 853 for his career, 147 shy of becoming the 43rd member of the SDSU
1,000-Point Club.

THIS WEEK'S OPPONENT

MONTANA GRIZZLIES (4-3, 3-0 Home) - Picked to finish first in both
Big Sky Conference preseason polls, the Grizzlies opened the season with a loss
at Colorado State, but bounced back with three straight wins, two of those wins
at home, where they boast a 3-0 record so far this season.

BYU snapped
the winning streak and San Francisco made it two losses in a row, evening the
Grizzlies record at 3-3, before they came back with a convincing 78-58 win over
in state foe Carroll College in their last game on Dec. 8, in Missoula.

THE SERIES vs. MONTANA - The Grizzlies lead the all-time
series 3-0, including a 98-56 win on Dec. 4, 1982 in Missoula, an 87-47 win on
Dec 10, 2006 in Missoula and a 70-61 win on Nov. 17, 2007 at Frost Arena.

THE LAST MEETING: vs. MONTANA, Nov.
17, 2007 - Jordan
Hasquet scored Montana's first 13 points of the second half en route to a game-high
29 points, leading the Grizzlies to a 70-61 victory over South Dakota State
before a crowd of 2,397 at Frost Arena. Montana improved to 3-1, while the
Jackrabbits dropped to 1-1.

The teams
played close in the first half, with Montana holding the largest lead at six
points on three occasions, the last 26-20 after a pair of Kyle Sharp free
throws. SDSU closed the half with a 10-4 run to pull even going into halftime
at 30.

After the
Jackrabbits took their first lead of the night at 33-32 early in the second
half on a free throw by Clint Sargent. SDSU led 37-36 before Hasquet, who sat
out the last 10 minutes of the first half with foul trouble, outscored the
Jackrabbits 7-0 over a one-minute, 13-second stretch to give the Grizzlies the
lead for good.

Matt
Martin, who scored 11 points, added back-to-back three-pointers to give Montana
a double-digit lead, 49-39, at the 12:09 mark, and the lead grew to 16 three
minutes later as SDSU went scoreless for nearly five minutes.

The
Jackrabbits whittled away at the lead, but could not get any closer than the
final margin of nine the rest of the way.

Ben Beran
led the Jackrabbits with 16 points, while Garrett Callahan and Clint Sargent
added 11 and 10, respectively. SDSU shot 21-of-49 from the floor, 43 percent,
but went just 3-of-15 on 3-point tries. The Jackrabbits converted 16-of-23
attempts at the free throw line, 69.6 percent.

The
Grizzlies shot an even 50 percent from the field, 26-of-52, and went 6-of-17 on
3-pointers. At the line, Montana made 12-of-18 attempts, 67 percent.

SDSU
controlled the boards, out-rebounding the Grizzlies, 36-27. Kai Williams led
the Jackrabbits with nine rebounds, with redshirt freshman Anthony Cordova
coming off the bench to grab eight boards.